The 30 day The Core is the Core challenge

Remember the 100 push-ups a day challenge that you saw some of your friends post about everyday on Facebook? Or the 100 days of running? Or the 30 day plank challenge? I just saw something about the latter yesterday for the first time. Googling it lead me to this post about it: http://www.seattlewolf.com/pages/8937449.php?contentType=31&contentId=2294&pid=308093. The goal is to build up to a 5 minute plank. Planks are a great exercise, without question. But is a 5 minute plank really a good thing? It definitely isn’t if you’re doing it with the form shown in the poster. Um, a plank is supposed to be about stabilizing your core, not letting your core hang limply off your back! I bet her back gets sore within about 30 seconds of planking. And let’s not forget that the plank only addresses one aspect of the core.

The 100 push-ups and 100 days of running challenges always bothered me. I love push-ups, but a focus solely on push ups – an exercise that works primarily your front side, without also doing an equivalent exercise to work your backside, is not ideal in a society where most of us already spend far too much time with shortened pecs pulling our shoulders forward. I could get behind a 100 rows challenge, but I guess that’s not as sexy. Although it really is – strengthen your back and your posture will improve, allowing you to show off your boobs or your manly pecs.

A couple years ago I listened to a friend complaining about the hip pain she was enduring, but she refused to take a day off from running because she was doing the 100 days of running challenge. Really? So you’re going to further damage your body because you’re committed to a random challenge? The problem with 100 days of running, is that most people shouldn’t run for 100 days in a row. But I guess the “Run 80 days out of 100″ is less cool sounding.

Every day for the next 30 days, you will do 4 exercises, one each for:

Anterior (front) core

Lateral/rotary (side) core

Posterior (butt!) core

Core plus – an exercise that is big on core but also works something else

Anyone see what I did there? Balance! When I think of core, I think of the many great trainers and educators whom I have learned from over the years. Virtually all of them advocate a strong core, but their definition of core goes far beyond “the six pack muscles”. We got obliques, we got transverse abdominus, we got glutes, we got multifidus, we got QL…There’s a whole lotta muscles in your core, and all are important in maintaining a happy, healthy, and high-performing body.

What are the challenge specifics?

Rule #1: Pick an exercise from each category every day.

Rule #2: You don’t have to pick the same exercise every day, but you can. If you don’t want to pick the exercises yourself, we will provide recommendations each day.

Rule #3: If something hurts, stop doing it. If you finish the exercise even though it was painful, that’s an automatic disqualification from the challenge. Take that! Now keep in mind, “pushing through while the muscles feel like they are working” does not constitute pain. But things like pain in the shoulder joint while side-planking, or pain in the low back while planking do count as pain. If you find the exercise you’ve chosen causes pain, pick another one instead (also consider seeing your doctor or manual therapist, especially if it’s a recurring thing)! Hopefully you can find another exercise in that category that doesn’t hurt. If you can’t skip that category for the day.

Rule #4: It’s a 30 day challenge, but we’ll cut you a bit of slack, because if you’re human like me, you’re probably not perfect. If you complete the challenge at least 28 of 30 days, you’ll be a Gold champion! Complete at least 25 days, and you’ll be a Silver champion; and complete at least 21 days, and you’ll be a Bronze champion.

Rule #5: Be your awesome self. This means that if your best side plank is 30 seconds, then be proud of the 30 second planks that you do. Aim to increase it over the 30 days, but remember that you don’t have to increase it every day, and if you aren’t able to increase it, but you still do it, and feel your core working while you do, that’s worthy of celebration. You rock because you’re doing this, not because of the numbers you reach.

Next challenge Starts…November 1st!

It should only take about 5 minutes a day. And you don’t have to do it all together, although you may find that works. Just get ‘er done. I’ll start you off with some suggestions for each of the categories, and we’ve got a few extra special bonuses since the first round:

- Accountability! Via an online submission form. That’s right. We’ve got forms! First step: register via the registration form to let us know you’re in. Don’t worry – you’ll see from the form that we’re very respectful of your personal info. Don’t think about it – do it!. Second step will be to fill in your daily Core submission so that we can see that you’ve done your core work for the day. The form includes a list of 15+ core exercises in each category in case you’re looking for ideas.

- We send you a Daily Core email to remind you to do your exercises, and also provides a picture, and either a description or a video of a core exercise. You’ll get a different exercise each day, and it rotates through each of the four core categories.

- Each day we’ll provide a recommended set of exercises to do and how long/how many to do. AND we’ll provide an advanced and beginner challenge level. Pick a level and try to do the specific exercises for that day. Or if you prefer to do your own thing, then just one anterior core, one lateral/rotary core, one posterior core, and one core plus exercise every day of the challenge. The recommended exercises will be posted to the Custom Strength Facebook page the night before each day of the challenge.

- A copy of my Core Companion workout. This is something I’ve been using myself and have introduced it to my clients at Custom Strength with great success. You’ll receive this at the end of the challenge.

- If you have any questions throughout the challenge, or want to see how you’re doing relative to the rest of the challengers, pop over to The Custom Strength Facebook page. We’ll post results at the halfway mark and at the end of the challenge.

Here are some of the exercises you’ll learn and “enjoy” during the Core is the Core challenge:

Anterior (front) core

Plank (time is dependent on your ability. Set the standard on day 1)

Bench plank

McGill curl-ups (not to be confused with crunches, which I don’t encourage)

Leg lowering progression

Stability ball roll out

Ab wheel roll out

Lateral/rotary (side) core

Side plank

Bird dog

Stir the pot

Shoulder taps

Half-kneeling kettlebell halo

Bench side plank

Posterior (butt!) core

Glute bridges (try it with a hold)

Single leg glute bridges (also try it with a hold – don’t let the other hip drop!)

Band hip extensions and abductions

Sidelying clams

Shoulder and feet elevated hip lifts (1 or 2 legs)

Core plus

Push-ups

Pull-ups

Squats

Deadlifts

Single leg Romanian deadlift (hold the weight on the opposite side to the stance leg)

One arm DB row

Wondering about the exercises above? join the challenge and you’ll get to do them.

Touche. Aim for an amount that’s doable for you. I’m about to post what I’ve been doing since I started (I got a 5 day head start) so hopefully that will give some ideas. But the idea is that it should be challenging but not so challenging that you’re dying or that you start to wish you weren’t doing it.